Fretboard review
A free Linux chord reference for exploring guitar shapes, not editing tablature.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Fretboard is a free, open-source guitar chord lookup and practice app for GNOME. It is suited to guitarists who want to search for chord names, see shapes on a guitar neck, and explore alternate ways to play them. The GNOME listing describes it as suitable for beginners and advanced guitarists. Despite its name, its documented focus is chords rather than guitar-tab authoring, so it is a reference tool rather than a tab editor.
Its chord exploration tools are the main draw: users can plot a chord on an interactive neck, experiment with changing it, and view alternative fingerings. Bookmarks provide a way to save chords for later. This makes Fretboard a focused option for looking up and comparing chord shapes, rather than a broad composition workspace. Guitarists seeking tablature creation or editing should choose a tool built for those tasks instead.
Fretboard is free and open-source, and is available for Linux through Flathub as part of GNOME Circle. Its fit is clearest for Linux users who want a desktop chord reference; the listed support channel is the community. The listed deployment spans desktop and mobile, but the platform specified is Linux. Choose it for chord lookup and practice, not if you need tab authoring or a tool on another operating system.
Fretboard pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Search for chords by name and plot them on an interactive guitar neck
- Explore chord variations and alternative fingerings
- Bookmark chords to return to later
- Where it doesn't
- Focuses on chord lookup, not creating or editing guitar tablature
- Available for Linux only
- Support is community-based
Fretboard fact sheet, pricing and score →
Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.
Last updated · How we research and update